Putting typewriter font into paragraph throws off leading

[SukiW]

Hi all,

Not an expert user here, but I'm usually able to solve my own problems. This one has me stumped. I am designing a children's book interior that uses Ten Oldstyle 11 pt as the main font. Occasionally, however, I want to indicate that words are text messages so I'm using American Typewriter 10 pt for that. The result is that I have some paragraphs that use both fonts. Obviously, this is throwing off the leading, which then makes it so that the bottom margin of the page is different from the rest of the pages. 

Is there a quick fix for this? I've tried adjusting all sorts of things in the paragraph style and the character style, but I haven't gotten any good results. See screenshot.

Thanks, Suki

[Peter Spier · Accepted solution]

Your paragraph style should define the main font, size and leading. In this case I would absolutely define a value for leading, not set it to auto.

For the type that should be in the Typewriter font in these mixed paragraphs, define a character style  that has only the name of the font and the size, leaving other attributes empty, and assign that style to the text messages. TYhis will preserve the leading throughout.

If you have some paragraphs that are entirely in the Typewrioter font, define a separate paragraph style for those, and set the leading the same as for the other paragraphs.

For books its also useful to use a baseline grid set to the body text leading and set your styles to align to the grid (usually first line is enough).

[SukiW]

Thank you for that quick and clear explanation!

[Peter Spier]

You're welcome